In agricultural, nursery and gardening applications, it is a common practice to use water as a base liquid and mix into the water, various additives such as fertilizer, fungicides, pesticides or other chemicals to control pests and weeds or to otherwise produce an effect on the material being sprayed. In the application of the additives, it is important to minimize the amount of additives used and sprayed into the environment. Heretofore, there have been no reliable systems for efficiently controlling the ratio mixture of an additive with a base fluid as water, when the amount of water for a particular application has not been set. Preparation of the additive solution may result in too much solution or extra amounts of un-used additives. There is also a need to improve the handling of additives because of the hazardous nature of some chemical additives.
In the past, various patents have issued relating to spraying systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,924, issued on Dec. 26, 2000, to Gruett et al, teaches a piston and drive for metering a pump with a visual indicator as to the volume being dispensed. The drive assembly includes a rotatable drive shaft, an eccentric cam insert, a cam rod and a rocking beam. The rocking beam is coupled to the piston, the cam rod shaft and a biasing mechanism. When the drive shaft is rotated, movement of the cam rod shaft causes the rocking beam to pivot and move the piston along a stroke to dispense the liquid. The flow volume indicator has a main body with an annular side wall, flexible base wall, and a knobbed pointer that is inserted into a bore of the pump body and coupled to the flow adjustment stem. Movement of the flow adjustment stem causes the knobbed end of the pointer to move and the base wall to flex.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,924, issued on Jan. 27, 1987 to Newsom, describes a mixing and spraying system that has a premixing “globe” for the various components before dispensing. The amount of concentrate dispensed is selected by varying the pump set stroke. A meter measures the flow of water to the mix tank. A high pressure pump pressurizes mixture from the mix tank, which is discharged through a spray gun, or recycled in part to the mix tank to agitate the mixture therein.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,979, issued on Nov. 13, 2001 to Lips, also teaches a mixing and spraying system utilizing a premixing “globe” for the various components before dispensing. In one embodiment, the invention includes a programmable controller and an injection assembly comprising at least one solenoid valve and an injector. The controller senses which of a plurality of watering zones is currently being watered, and effects the transmission of electrical pulses to the solenoid valve. Such pulses cause the valve to open/close and thereby produce stroking of a spring-loaded piston within the injector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,120, issued on May 24, 1994 to Nau et al, discloses a mixing and spraying system having a tank for carrier fluid, such as water, and a feed pump that pumps carrier fluid from this tank through a pipe to which spray nozzles are connected, and having a metering pump that is connected by a connecting pipe to a preparation container and is driven by the carrier fluid supplied by the feed pump.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,499, issued on May 23, 1989 to Fiorentini, teaches an apparatus for feeding and metering fluid components to a mixing head, in particular for metering and feeding reactive chemical components to a high pressure mixing head. The apparatus comprises at least a first and second transfer cylinder whose control unit is fed with hydraulic fluid from a single source of constant pressure, and whose component pumping unit is connected to a tank for the component, respectively to an inlet aperture for the component in a chamber of the mixing head, by means of a proportional servo valve which is controlled in relation to the rate of flow of the components so as to keep both the pressure and the flow of the components to be mixed constant.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,159, issued on Nov. 22, 1994 to Childers, describes an automatic fertilizing apparatus which injects fertilizer directly into the waterstream of a sprinkler system. Each time the sprinkler system is activated, a predetermined amount of fertilizer is dispensed into the waterstream. The apparatus can be controlled to dispense fertilizer only through sprinkler lines as determined by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,059, issued on Jun. 20, 1978 to Pinkerton, discloses an apparatus for accurately proportioning and mixing fluids comprising a double acting piston/cylinder unit of which the cylinder is divided into two chambers by the piston and the volume of the cylinder swept by the piston at one end of the piston is lesser than that at the other end. An inlet connection for a first fluid is made to one chamber, a conduit connects the two chambers and includes a connection to a source of the second fluid. Valve means are associated with the conduits and are effective to cause a charge of first fluid to be delivered to said one chamber and thereafter to be transferred to the other chamber drawing fluid from said source of second fluid to make up for the difference in the volumes of the chambers. Said valve means then cooperate to cause the mixed fluids to be discharged from the other chamber as said one chamber is again charged with said first fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,690, issued on Jul. 15, 1975 to the present inventor, discloses a horticulture system that mixes and meters two liquids in precise and determinable quantities and provides appropriate control of the liquid flow. A water tank and a chemical tank are respectively coupled by constant volume pumping means to a mixing and discharge nozzle means. Bell means are provided to respond to the presence of flowing chemicals in the chemical output line to indicate that a metered volume or flow of chemicals is occurring and to provide an indication of the relative flow volume. The bypass valve includes an improved pressure responsive system which is adjustable for differing line pressure conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,035, issued on Jun. 28, 1983 to the present inventor, also teaches a water-type spray application system employing a hydraulically-operated motor which is operated by the source of supply of the water or base carrier liquid and where the hydraulic motor dependently controls the amount of chemicals injected into the water system for application to lawns. The dependent chemical applications may be independently monitored as to the relationship of injection to the flow of water.
As disclosed in the prior art, most spraying in horticulture is performed by simple machines consisting of a water tank, a mix tank, pump, driving force, unloader, pulse cushion, discharge hose and a spray gun. Any left-over mix in the mix tank must be removed before the next spraying application. The mix tank can also be used to transport water to a location, and depending upon size, the mix tank may require a heavy truck. Some spraying systems have a second hose discharge on the mix tank.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system to efficiently mix chemical additives and water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which matches a set amount of additives to be mixed with the volume of water pumped.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which improves handling, monitoring and safety of chemical additives.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which reduces the need for individual calibration for each chemical additive according to the desired dilution and volume of water used.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which can be carried on a small vehicle, such as a truck.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system without a mix tank.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which is ideal for tree feeding.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an injection spraying system which is versatile for complete multiple tasks.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.